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Another Businessman Appeases Altruism
by Glenn Woiceshyn
Re: "Business Does Well by Doing Good"--by Courtney
Pratt--Oct. 2, 1997--The Globe and Mail
Dear Editor,
According to Courtney Pratt (president of Noranda Inc.) a corporation benefits its
shareholders by ignoring their interests in favour of the "interests" of
"stakeholders."
To grasp how irrational and destructive this notion is, imagine the following scenario.You
invest your savings in a forestry company whose CEO stays focused on one goal: to
maximize profits. To maximize profits, he hires the best people by offering them
top wages, educational supplements and incentives based on performance. He stresses
employee honesty, integrity and justice to keep morale high, and he delivers the
best products to customers at the lowest prices.
Consequently, his customers save money which they can use to improve their performance,
and so on. His happy shareholders re-invest some profits in other prospective firms.
So-called "stakeholders" learn that the keys to success are sound ethical
principles and performance, including competent, focused thinking. "Stakeholders"
benefit in numerous ways even though the CEO's focus was on the shareholders.
Now Mr. Pratt becomes CEO and sacrifices the shareholders' interests to the "interests"
of "stakeholders," in the name of such mushy, fluid buzzwords as "social
responsibility," "meaningful contribution to society," "public
trust," and "sustainable development." He spends his time seeking
"a consensus" from society's warring pressure-groups, many of which are
anti-capitalist. Then he proceeds to sacrifice shareholders' money to promote the
anti-forestry ideas of environmentalism and many anti-pay-for-performance ideas of
today's leftists, including pay equity and affirmative action. He evaluates his own
employees on their "community service."
Consequently, shareholders run for cover and another company bites the dust (or gets
a government bailout). "Stakeholders" everywhere become less prosperous
and less motivated to perform.
Is this a "meaningful contribution to society"?
When "stakeholders" desire that which they have no legitimate right to,
they will feel that their "interests" are threatened by the legitimate
interests and rights of shareholders. But feelings based on irrational notions should
not be the basis for robbing and enslaving those who are not irrational.
Mr. Pratt obviously suffers from a widespread "disease" infecting businesspeople
today. Having surrendered the moral high ground to the leftists' (irrational) ideal
of altruism as the highest ethical standard, businesspeople feel they have to beg
forgiveness for their ability and success, and thus appease envious power lusters
in the name of "social responsibility" and "business ethics."
Sincerely,
Glenn Woiceshyn
© 1997 Glenn Woiceshyn. All rights reserved.
This article can be found on-line at at http://www.capitalism.org/glennw. |
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